1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems that allow users to watch television shows and to schedule and save television shows to watch later.
2. Background of the Invention
Set-top boxes are electronic devices that generally are connected to or incorporated within televisions or computer monitors. They take a broadcast signal as input, for instance via a cable line or satellite wave, and transform the signal into audio and video information that allows a user to watch and enjoy broadcast programming. Most set-top boxes operate with an input device such as a remote control and also have a keypad or other integrated input device as well. In its most basic form a set-top box is used to receive broadcast signals, change channels, and browse through the available programs to find a show to watch.
A set-top box may be viewed as being comprised of resources. One resource is a tuner. The tuner is a hardware component that makes it possible, in part, to transform the signal received on a cable line or at an antenna, into a viewer usable form, such as a series of still images that are repeatedly displayed on the screen of the attached output device. It is the rapid display of the series of still images that causes the user to perceive a moving, changing television picture that is commonly known and understood to all people that watch television. Some set-top boxes comprise multiple tuners that allow the user to watch multiple shows simultaneously, such as with picture-in-picture enabled set-top boxes.
More recently, storage devices, such as hard drives, have been added to set-top boxes, which also are a resource that is available to a user of the set-top box. Typically, the storage device allows the user to save shows and watch them later, similar to the manner in which a user records shows with a VCR or DVD-R. When used in conjunction with an interactive program guide, the user is presented with a graphical user interface where they are able to browse current and future listings of shows and easily select the shows they want the set-top box to automatically save to the storage device later.
When the time comes for the set-top box to save the show, the set-top box needs to use one tuner and at least part of the storage device to perform the function. In a two tuner set-top box, this means the box could be used to save one show, while simultaneously allowing the user to watch a show on another channel before its tuner resources are exhausted. Similarly, a two-tuner system would allow the user to simultaneously save shows to the storage device on two different channels at overlapping time slots. In either case, such actions could quickly exhaust the available space on the storage device and the available tuners.
One solution to this problem is to make set-top boxes with more tuners and larger storage devices. By increasing the resources it becomes less likely that they will be quickly exhausted. This approach, however, is problematic for several reasons. First, the set-top boxes become more costly when they have their resources enhanced. From a consumer's perspective, this is unacceptable because they are often not willing to pay large amounts of money for set-top boxes. From a manufacturer's or distributor's perspective this is unacceptable as well, because the consumer is usually renting the set-top box and the manufacturer or distributor does not want to risk a lot of money in the case of a broken or not-returned set-top. Therefore, the usual solution is to continue providing stripped down versions of set-top boxes with a minimal size hard drive and no more than two tuners. Therefore, it is easy for a conventional set-top box to quickly run out of resources that are available to the user.